Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THREAD FOR A NEEDLE, by MARJORIE ALLEN SEIFFERT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THREAD FOR A NEEDLE, by                    
First Line: I had walked a long way
Last Line: As I trudged along.
Alternate Author Name(s): Cypher, Angela; Hay, Elijah
Variant Title(s): Ballad Of Thread For A Needle
Subject(s): Sewing


I had walked a long way
By the end of afternoon,
Trying to forget
The needle in my heart;
My lone path lay
Across the bare dune.

I walked toward the east
And could not see
How the sun sank down,
Forsaking me;
But the sand that was gold
Changed to grey,
And the dune looked empty;
The dune looked old.

Then far to the right
I saw an old woman
Climbing up the dune.
"It's good," I said,
"To see something human."
Like the sand she was grey, --
Like the dune she was old;
Then I saw her clearer;
She was walking away,
But she kept coming nearer,
And my heart went cold.

My heart stood still
And then began to throb
And crowded in my throat
Like a choking sob;

The sand came alive
And cried beneath my track:
With crumbling fingers
It tried to hold me back.

The woman leaned over
And scooped up sand
That ran between the fingers
Of her skinny hand.

I caught my breath
While my heart swelled up,
And like a bubble quivered,
And like a bubble broke.
I listened and shivered
While the old woman spoke:

"Threads of sand
On a crumbling spool,
Dreams for a wise man,
Dreams for a fool,

"Magic thread
That runs and gleams,
Thread of sand
That men call dreams.

"With thread of sand
You sew your shroud
To wrap your heart
In a dusty cloud,

"A crumbling shroud
But heavy as lead
To crush your heart
When your dreams lie dead.

"There never was a dream
That any man stole;
For threads of sand
You pay your soul!"

"If my soul is money,"
I heard myself say,
"It's only good for spending
Or to give away,

"And all immortal
Things are sewn
With dreams for thread
And dreams alone;

"There's a white-hot needle
Buried in my breast
That stabs me, and burns me,
And gives no rest,

"I'll thread it with a dream
And sew my heart whole;
For thread such as that
I'll give you my soul!"

Then silence fell
In that lonely place.
I looked at the woman
And she had no face.

I was blind for a moment
In a whirl of night;
Then my heart grew easy,
My heart grew light,

And pale as a shark's tooth
Up came the moon;
I stood all alone
On the empty dune,

While the needle in my heart
Began to sew a song;
Softly I hummed it
As I trudged along.





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